ASSAR has been examining the conditioning factors surrounding adaptation action in four of the world’s semi-arid regions, with a specific focus on barriers and enablers to the uptake and success of adaptation. Here is what we found.

In semi-arid regions, a global temperature rise of 1.5℃ (and each interval of 0.5℃ thereafter) will have progressively severe local impacts. In this video we describe how average local temperatures increasing faster than the global average (and rising more with each interval of global increase), and intensifying climate extremes and changing rainfall patterns, mean that semi-arid regions will experience declining crop yields, shifts in water availability, compromised health of people and livestock, and additional pressures to livelihoods. Affected countries have growing evidence available to argue for emissions reductions in line with a 1.5℃ warming target, as proposed in the Paris Agreement, and at the same time push for adopting climate-resilient development pathways that acknowledge the threats of increasing temperatures and their associated impacts.